Recent Developments in Heterogeneous Catalytic Routes for the Sustainable Production of Succinic Acid from Biomass Resources

Succinic acid is a "hot molecule" identified by United States Department of Energy as a substitute for petrochemicals with great scope for its production from biomass. It is used as an intermediate for the production of a huge variety of everyday consumer products with an addressable market share of billions of dollars. Succinic acid and its derivatives are mainly used as pharmaceuticals, adhesives, solvents, intermediates for polymer synthesis, and food additives. Succinic acid is commercially produced from petrochemicals and there is a deficiency of economically viable catalytic processes for its large-scale production from biomass. Recently, a lot of biochemical routes have been devised to enhance its production from biomass resources, but such processes are time-consuming and involve tedious separation procedures. Therefore, this Review focuses on metal-based and metal-free heterogeneous catalytic routes for the synthesis of succinic acid from biomass derived products. The presence of uniform channels, cavities, active sites of various strengths, and the unique surface structure of the heterogeneous catalysts are a few of the interesting features that promote their use in industrial processes.